Vang Vieng

So there is this little town in Laos called Vang Vieng. Hugging the Nam Song river, surrounded by beautiful mountains and practically in the middle of nowhere it has become this sort of massively popular party town. It's quite surreal really, there are a million little bar restaurants where you can get mostly western food (read: pizza) and for whatever reason watch Friends. Yes, that crappy TV show. It appears that the Lao think that westerners are beer guzzling, pizza eating, marijuana smoking, crappy sitcom watching people. While, admittedly, this is not so far off, the idea of a place like Vang Vieng is, for many westerners, hell on earth. I was weary about going but was in serious need of some party. See, unlike most of South America where even the smallest little shit town is likely to have an all night rumba, South East Asia closes early and parties seldom (outside of the major tourist areas of course). So we headed out.

Most people go tubing in Vang Vieng -- yes, apple river style tubing. You get a tube at about 11am, float down the river and get drunk and at various riverside bars. They throw out bamboo sticks, reel you in give you free shots and encourage you to go on their massive, dangerous rope swings and zip lines into the river. Needless to say, many people come back severely drunk and hurt. Apparently, some people have actually died -- getting too drunk and drowning in the river. But like any third world country desperate for tourist's cash there are no safety regulations and no one even suggesting that massive amounts of alcohol, 20 foot high rope swings and dangerous rapids might not go together so nicely. But in the end, I'm glad a place like Vang Vieng exists -- get in, have fun, get out. Though it saddens me when I meet people who waste 2 weeks of their month long trip to SE Asia in a place like Vang Vieng. It seems like such a waste; I think we'd all be better off if they'd just go to Wisconsin.

Laos is more expensive than Thailand. This is relative of course -- I mean, I'm still spending well under $20 a day. It's also a little less touristy but not by much. You also get charged for EVERYTHING. For the first time in my life I've actually paid to walk (not drive) across a bridge. Ridiculous -- seriously, I could have waded through the river. The local currency is the Kip. You get about $8,800 kip to the dollar making transactions extra fun. Plus the biggest bill they have is a 50,000 kip. This "large" bill has apparently just been introduced. They celebrate this achievement by posting billboard adverts all over the country. It's like "yay! inflation!" Obviously, I'm a bit annoyed by the wad of cash stuffing up my pocket that equals about two dollars. But anyway, hows the states? I hear it's cold!

Laos

Really, I've been meaning to write more but I just can't sit around the computer for so long anymore...at least not when it's so nice outside. I'm not sure it's rained since I've been here. But anyway, I'm currently in Laos, known for mmmmmm nothing I guess...It's land locked and very poor. The locals are nice enough though and the landscape is amazing. Plus they drink this rice whiskey called lao lao that is really, really cheap and there is the very drinkable beer lao. Accomodation is slightly more expensive than Thailand costing a whopping five dollars a night for a room and food is dirt cheap -- I've been eating at this outdoor veggie buffet, you fill your plate for about 50 cents. I've spent the last two days travelling down the Mekong River on a slow boat. I'm not sure that that sounds super exciting and to be honest it wasn't, they cram a bunch of tourists on a shotty boat with asian (read small) size seats and you go down the river. It's nice for like an hour when you're like oooo look a mountain or ooooo look some kids bathing in the water. Then you stop at a small village and it's that whole human zoo thing that kinda makes you sick so you start thinking about the dollar beer lao they are selling in the back and well you know the rest of the story. But really, Laos is great. The french colonized the reagion so there are some great colonial buildings and if you are sick as shit of noodles and rice you can get a baguette sandwich and they have real coffee. Plus there are real cool signs in our guest house that say we can't have sex with anyone unless they are our wife and that if we do drugs we will be subject to the death penelty but of course there are people offering you weed everyday. And to top it all off, the bars close at 1130 and there is a 12am curfew. Yes, you must be in your bed by 12 or you are breaking the law. But seriously, I do like this place.

Chiang Mai, Pai and the Mae Hong Son Loop

Chiang Mai is the gateway to northern Thailand and also the second biggest city (I think?). Most people use the city as a base to do some trekking, visit hill tribes and ride elephants. People are like jumping out of their seats to get you on to these organized tours. I contemplated it and decided it just wasn't for me and headed to Pai intent on renting a motorbike and riding around the mountains for a while. Pai is a total hippy town. It's super chill, set in the mountains and seems to attract all sorts of different people. After the craziness of Bangkok and the tourist trap of Chiang Mai I found it quite refreshing. In Pai I got together some people I had met in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, rented some 125cc scooters for 3 dollars a day, bought a map and headed out.

ahhhh...I really intended to write about this whole 5 day trip, about how I got deathly ill for two days, rode my bike into a ditch, made it to the Burmese border, saw some great little villages with the nicest people and had a super awesome time but I've been on the internet for going on two hours and am hungry. I'm back in Pai, I didn't get hurt on my fall (though it was quite amusing to many a Thai) and my death sickness was terrible yet short lived. Maybe I'll write more about it later but probably not. I did, however, post a bunch of pictures to facebook. See the link below (you don't need to sign up). I've given up posting pics directly to this site, it's way too slow.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73785&l=fc80a&id=581927958

Thailand so far

My first impression of Bangkok was not so good. I stayed near the Khao San Road -- an area infamous for backpackers and all night partying. It is unique. However, I found it to be too much; too many tourists, too many people pushing shit on you, too much bad music and too many dreadlocks. Once I ventured out of the area though, I found a much different city and began to really like it.

Bangkok is a city of contrasts. On one hand it seems very poor. Things are ridiculously cheap; my own private rooms cost about $4 a night, and most meals bought on the street cost about one dollar (and so far the stomach is holding out). On the other hand there are upscale malls and massive brand new hotels in the "new Bangkok" area -- a place not unlike Columbus Circle or something. Yesterday, I visited an 8 floor mall that was all computers, fake video games, fake software and fake DVD's. Really, you can get anything in Bangkok for very cheap.

Getting around the city is an adventure in itself. The bus system is extensive if not a nightmare to figure out. But it is so cheap, you just kinda hop on and hope it sorts itself out. You can also travel by river boat, tuk tuk (motorized rikshaw), motorcycle and taxi cab (about $2 for a half hour ride). There is also a brand new sky train that is fairly impressive, though, at the moment only covers a small section of the city. Traffic in Bangkok is horrendous, probably wost I've seen; red lights are a suggestion, cross walks are wherever and motorbikes sometimes feel its necessary to ride on the sidewalk. It's all a bit nuts.

Thai people -- when there not pushing this or that on you -- seem very nice and helpful and so far seem to speak enough English to avoid total frustration. I'm currently in Chiang Mai and plan to bum around the north for a few weeks then head to Laos -- I've heard great things. I hear it's cold in the states. Sucks....

Colombia

For the last few days I've been meaning to write a post about how much Colombia rules. I just haven't been able to find the time. I spent all morning sorting out fraud on both my bank cards. They're now both shut down and I haven't got much money left. Damn Ecuadorians. Good thing I've only a few days left.

I can't really remember where I left off -- the bull attack in Salento I believe? From Salento I went to Medellin, the city famous for cocaine, bombings and of course, Pablo Escobar. Those days, however, are long gone -- I found Medellin to be one of the nicest, cleanest, safest and most modern cities in South America (expensive too). The highlight of Medellin was an Atletico Nacional soccer game. It was the most terrifying yet fun sporting event I've ever been to. We sat in the popular section with all the mega fans. Basically a mob of teenage boys -- the testosterone was thick in the air. The air was also thick with Marijuana smoke, everybody was smoking; you could see the cloud of weed smoke hovering over the stadium the entire game. The popular section essentially has no seats; everyone stands the whole game. They also sing songs the whole game, my favorite one went something like this (in Spanish of course): "we're high on pot, we're drunk and afterward we are gonna fight with the police." Awesome. It was a hostile environment, we were all pretty terrified and every time a goal was scored the fans would rush forward and jump on top of each other. We did end up making out of the game unscathed. Two days later I saw on the news that 50 people were stabbed in a game in Cali...

From Medellin I went straight to Cartegena, probably the most famous city in Colombia. It's great -- really -- beautiful and all that, but I found it a bit boring so I headed to Santa Marta and left for Cuidad Perdida. Cuidad Perdida was built by the Tairona Indians around 800AD about 650 years before Machu Picchu. It wasn't discovered until 1975 and the only way to reach the place is a 6 day hike through the jungle (3 days there, 3 days back). Until recently, the area has been somewhat unsafe due to FARC activity (the last tourists were kidnapped in 2003) but the area now has an intense military presence and seems to be relatively safe. The hike itself was amazing. Half the time I felt like I was in a Indiana Jones film and the other half I felt like I was in a Vietnam flick. The city is pretty wicked too. It's definitely not as grand as Machu Picchu but like Machu Picchu it is in remarkable condition. And since you have to hike 6 days to see the thing there are essentially no tourists there. Basically, we had the whole place to ourselves (and, of course, the military). The military added a nice touch though. It was great fun talking to these guys. They were so enthused to have people up there to talk to. They were basically all kids. And like any kids given big machine guns and other weapons they were more then happy to show them off. It was the first time in months that I regretted not having a camera -- everyone got great pics of them holding big ass machine guns and I got nothing. It was interesting none the less. They even showed us how to use a mortar.

After Cuidad Perdida I headed to Tayrona park and chilled on the beach for four days. It's one of the most beautiful parks I've ever seen and it definitely has the nicest beaches I've been too(granted before South America the only beaches I've seen have been on Long Island).

Colombia is safe. It's definitely safer than Ecuador. People here are also some of the friendliest people on the continent. They see far less tourists than many other South America countries so many people are very happy to have you here. When people come up to you speaking English in other South American countries they want something. Here, they just want to talk to you, ask if you need anything and welcome you to Colombia. The amount of military and police in Colombia is immense and could easily put you off. I've been searched more in Colombia in one month than 25 years in the States. But because of the searches the country is safe for travel again. It gets annoying, and there is no way I'd put up with it in the States, but they've got much more shit to deal with than us.

I'm back Thursday morning. Looking forward to seeing you all....

Hugo Chavez is a fucking idiot

As most of you probably don´t know Venezuela and Ecuador have amassed troops on the Colombian border. They claim that while conducting a raid against FARC, Colombia flew into Ecuadorian airspace. Thus, troops were sent to Colombia´s borders to send a message or whatever. It´s all a bit silly and stupid. I´m glad I´ve got no more borders to cross.

I arrived in Salento, Colombia yesterday only to sit in amazement as nine people told me about how they were attacked by a bull. This region of Colombia is known as the coffee growing region. It´s a beautiful area of lush green hills, banana trees and coffee plantations. They also breed bullfighting bulls in the area and one of then escaped it´s pen yesterday. The bull happened across nine tourists taking a walk in the nearby hills and proceeded to tear them apart. Seriously, it was one of the most surreal stories I´ve ever heard. Five people were directly attacked by the bull and sent top the hospital. The others had to sit and watch in horror as their friends were being thrown into the air by the bull. A seventy year old man among them was gored, lost his glasses and spent two hours in a tree too terrified to climb down. I almost arrived in Salento one day before and no doubt I would have gone on the walk with them. I´m so glad I decided to stay and extra day in Cali...Anyway, no one was seriously injured -- just a bunch of stitches, bruises and perhaps, some mental scars. And of course the bull was not put down, it did exactly what it was bread to do: tear shit up. Ridiculous.


I´m off to the Caribbean soon enough. Then to Bogota. I´ll be back in three weeks. Can´t wait to see everybody...

Sunset in the Amazon

Coast in Ecuador

Border Problems

I hate border crossings. They make me nervous and are generally just a pain in the ass -- especially between countries that don´t get along like Chile and Argentina (crossed that border like 3 times) or in the most current case, Peru and Ecuador. I took an overnight bus from Trujillo to Tumbes near the Ecuadorian border. From there I had a few options, I could take a combi (basically, a really ghetto bus) for about 30 cents to the actual border and walk across or I could get an international bus with Cifa straight to Guayaquil. The latter, though more expensive, was definitely my preferred option. I´ve done the whole walk across the border thing and it is usually a time consuming pain in the ass while most international buses I´ve taken tend to fly you through customs cause they have a schedule to keep.

So I had just gotten off the overnight bus in Tumbes, a bit tired of course, and was being hassled by this guy -- ¨frontera, frontera¨ he kept saying. One of the first things you learn traveling South America is to always ignore people at bus stations. Even if I need a cab into town I generally avoid the first few people offering me a ride, walk out a bit, and get a cheaper cab near the street. Anyway, I was ignoring this dude -- I didn´t want to go the frontera directly, I wanted an international bus to Guayaquil. But he persisted and persisted and finally got out of me that I wanted to go to the Cifa office and get a ticket to Guayaquil -- hopefully today. He then tells me that he works for Cifa, shows me a brochure and offers me a ride. This seemed a bit fishy and out of the ordinary so I continued ignoring him. He then goes and gets a bus worker from the bus I had just got off, the bus worker vouches for him and I foolishly give in. I go out to the parking lot with the supposed Cifa worker and to my relief the dude with him has a Cifa uniform on. I´m now pretty much at ease thinking Cifa is on top of their game. The guys then pleasantly inform me that we have to go Peruvian immigration to get our exit stamp before we go the bus station. This is, actually, quite normal. Immigration stations between countries can sometimes be miles apart and it is occaisonally best to get an exit stamp before boarding the bus. We arrive to Peruvian immigration, they whip me through and I´m pleased; I´ve spent hours waiting to get an exit stamp. Then we´re off towards Ecuador and this strikes me as a bit strange -- I had heard that the Cifa office was in Tumbes and that you could take a bus straight through the border. But these guys are good, they put me at ease -- we´ll be to station soon they kept saying, and I believed them. We then drove into a town which I assumed was Tumbes (sometimes bus stations are a bit out of town and the one I arrived in seemed to be in the middle of nowhere). We drove around a bit and the guys were explaining how dangerous the town was. I didn´t doubt them, border towns usually are; but the way kept going at it was a bit overkill. We then parked and were approached by what appeared to be a police officer. The officer informed me, that for my safety crossing the border, I would have to pay 40 American dollars. I was fucking furious. It became clear then that this was a ruse, he was no police officer and these guys didn´t work for Cifa. An argument broke out but with my poor Spanish, it was no use, I had to pay. They kept telling me I´d be robbed if I went out on my own and to me this seemed to be more of a threat than a warning. Plus I had no idea where the bus station was so I paid up. I was then brought to a bus station (not Cifa!) and borded a bus to Guyaquil.

It bothered me all day. Not the money but the principal, I´m so sick of everyone trying to squeeze every bit of change from me. But anyway, I made it to Ecuador safe and sound, with only one more border to cross. Will getting into Colombia be more of a pain in the ass then getting to Ecuador? Probably....

So I´ve spent the last few days in Montinita, Ecuador. It´s the most cliche beach/party town I´ve ever been to. Juice stands, Surfers, Bob Marley, Sublime and Marijuana. It´s a bit much, but I´m definitely enjoying myself.

Ecuador uses American dollars as it´s currency. It´s really quite strange. There is a huge shortage of small bills and change in South America and Ecuador is no different. In Bolivia you´ll definitely get groans when trying to buy something with a 100 Boliviano note and here you get groans when trying to use a $20. It just seems so silly...And today I found out I have a fake 20 dollar bill! I actually brought this bill from the States -- it was moving money. I´ve tried, a few times, to pass it around town but no one will take it. It´s actually a very, very good fake, it has the water mark and everything. The only way to tell is the paper. When comparing two 20´s it becomes obvious. I am, though, gonna keep the bill -- no one will question it in the states, I´ll probably just use it in an MTA machine. So watch out NYC, people are passing fake cash! My only hope is that I had more than one and gave it to the so called police man....

From Lima to the Northern Beaches of Peru

After Cusco and a month spent in the Altiplano I was absolutely fed up with mountains, rain, mud and not being able to breathe. I booked a flight straight to Lima ready for beach, surfing and finally, some summer weather again. What I found was a polluted, westernized, touristy, mall-culture, shit city. Really, Lima isn´t that bad but it´s kinda how I´ve always imagined LA and I´ve never really imagined LA to be such a great place. I stayed in Miraflores, an upscale suburb that really could have been anywhere in America. At first it was refreshing; real supermarkets, western products and good restaurants. But soon I was sick of arguing with cab drivers about fare and talking with Americans about their exotic and life changing trip that Lima could never provide. After a few days I was out and off to Huanchaco, a small surfing town in Northern Peru. It´s definitely a tiny place but the day I arrived I was walking around with a few guys from the hostel and we basically walked into a street party. This was unlike your normal street party; there were dudes in suits bringing out free beers and good food. Obviously we jumped in, but stuck out like the gringos that we were. The Peruvians didn´t seem to mind, however, and we were welcomed with open arms and even got our pictures taken with Ms. Trujillo (the party was apparently for her?) who, we were informed, is running for Miss Universe. It was all a bit confusing but fun at the same time. Later that night was a massive party on the beach that happens in Huanchaco only once a year. Good timing, I guess, as people from all over Peru come to this party. It was amazing.

Not much else to report, just beach chillin everyday and enjoying every moment. I´m off to Ecuador tonight. Gonna spend some more time on the coast then it´s off to Quito and hopefully the Jungle for a quick tour then Colombia.

Terrified!

I think that about sums up this pic. I love it. It illustrates my experience in the Potosi mines perfectly. Thats about all the room we had to move and I was definetly losing it at this point. Good fun.

I just returned from Machu Picchu. I´ll refrain from saying "coolest place I´ve been" again but really, it was amazing. Too bad I don´t have a camera but any web search will certainly turn up millions of photos. Machu Picchu is probably the biggest attraction in South America and certainly one of the bigger attractions in the world. Usually big tourist sites like this suck -- the Eifel Tower, Empire State, Big Ben, the Coliseum -- but Machu Picchu is truely worthy of being one of the 7 wonders of the world or whatever. I´d even risk seeing more fat, old, annoying Americans again tomorrow if it didn´t cost so much to get in.

Machu Picchu is often described as ruins but I´d have to somewhat disagree. Almost all of the city structure is still in place. Most houses aren´t even missing a brick and the irregation system that tapped into natural springs for farming is still opertational. It was one of the few cities that the Spanish didn´t find and subsequently weren´t able to destroy. Walking around the city I found it very easy to imagine the city the inhabited and alive. Also, I found the site much bigger than I had anticipated -- I even got lost a few times. Pictures just don´t do it justice. It´s touristity as hell and getting there, and in, is terribly expensive but it really is a must see.

San Pedro Prison

I've recently been reading the book "Marching Powder" about a guy who spent 5 years in San Pedro, a prison in La Paz. He was an Englishman who was busted trying to smuggle cocaine out of Bolivia. What he reveals about San Pedro is absolutely amazing. The inmates have to buy their own cell, their families can live there and come and go as the please, there are restaurants and stores all run by the inmates (Coca-Cola even has an exclusive deal to only sell coke products in the prison), and most shocking is that some of the best coke is produced inside the prison and smuggled out and sold. Basically the prisoners can do whatever they please at a price - the place is the epitome of corruption.



So anyway, this guy Thomas McFadden decides that in order to make a living in prison (they have to buy everything, even food) he would conduct tours of the place. For something like three or four years he conducted tours of the prison; bribing the guards to let tourists in, even letting them stay over night to party. It became such a popular tour that Lonely Planet even mentioned it in it's La Paz chapter of it's tour book.



Apparently, after Thomas was released in 2000 the tour continued, run by other inmates. The tours should have stopped alltogether when his book was published in 2003 but I've heard from some that you can still get in. Last night Alex and I spoke with a taxi driver who was certain we'd get in so today we had a go at it. An Aussie guy staying in our room was also intersted in going so we set off this morning to walk the five blocks to the prison. About half way there the Aussie goes white and says to me, "mate, I've got like 3 different illegal drugs in my pocket, do you think it will be a problem?" Uhhhhh, fuck yea I think to myself, we're trying to get into prison! He decides that hiding them in his sock was sufficient. So we get to San Pedro plaza which is quite a nice little city square park and on the far end is the prison. We walk up and Alex asks if we can go inside. They ask who we are visiting - no one of course we inform them, we just want to get in to see the place. "No Touristas, Muy Peligroso," they say, but also inform us we can go ask the warden. They take our passports and we head up to the wardens office. The guy is accomodating in every way but one - he wont let us in, the government won't allow it. I keep thinking how much do we have to bribe this guy to let us in but its no use, we can't get in. On our way out we take a few pictures and this guy in a black suit approaches us and make us delete them all.



I probably made it seem like I'd get into the prison, and I really wish I had, but regardless it was still pretty sweet to see the place and get close. Read the book, it rules. I should be outta Bolivia in a few days then off to Peru and Maccu Piccu. Can't wait.

Australia Day!

So there I was, sitting in the bar eating breakfast - groggy, tired, exhausted - when a bearded uber-traveler looking fellow says to me, "do you speak German?" Not entirely understanding why this question would be asked in English or why I get asked this so often when I travel, I explain to this fellow that despite my kraut-like looks I am American and in fact speak English and very, very poor Spanish. "What day is it," beard-man asks. "Saturday," I say, quite excitedly - for once I'm certain of the date, "January 26th." I get a blank stare. "It's Australia day!" Is this guy blind or dumb? There are Aussie day flyers all over the hostel and shit, the place is full of them -- who else wears boardies (swim trunks) and thongs (sandles) in a city that likely never gets over 50 degrees? "Austalia," the confused uber-traveler says, "no, I'm from Austria." ughhhhh....

Anyway, it's Australia day and I'm in La Paz. I've spent all morning trying to upload heaps of pics onto this stupid blog. But alas, blogger is a pretty shit site for uploading photos...these two pics are of the Salar de Uyuni, one of the coolest places I've ever been...really messes with your perspective. I'll try to keep this up and load some more pics but my patience is at an end...

Some Bolivia Pics

Bolivia

Been a while since an update. I´m in Sucre, Bolivia now. Too much to write about...

We left Mendoza and headed to Salta, our last stop in Argentina. Salta was quite a change from the rest of the country - far less European, most of the people are indiginous not white. Anyway, we had to stick around for a few days to wait for Alex´s cards so we rented a car and drove around the countryside. It was insane driving to say the least. Being with a few wrong-side-drivers (english, aussies), I had to do nearly all the driving. Out of the city was all windy mountain roads - certain death if I fucked up; and city driving was all cross-town-manhattan-fight for every inch bullshit. But it was serious fun, we got to go to many small towns that see few gringos, and saw some great natural beauty.

After Salta we headed to the Bolivian border. The bus drops you off at the border and you have to walk across to Bolivia. Due to our stellar relations with the Bolivian government I had to pày 100 American Dollars to enter the country. But whatever, this country is dirt cheap: hostel bed $5-7, buses under 5 and stellar street food for under a dollar. After the border crossing we headed straight for Tupiza where we set out on a four day jeep tour through South West Bolivia.

From what I can tell, Bolivia is nearly all moutains. It is wicked high and you can really feel the altitude (hard to breath, get drunk after 2 beers etc.). In order to fight altitude sickness many people chew coca leaves. It actually works pretty well; they don´t taste too bad and work great for an upset stomach. Also, because the country is so high, it is terribly cold. I was not at all prepared for the weather up in the mountains - it even snowed one day (remember it´s summer here). (side note: these Bolivian kids in this interent cafe are being bastards, they keep asking me for money, getting in my face and shit saying "chupa, chupa, chupa.") Anyway, the jeep tour ranged from amazing to absolutly miserable. We saw geysers, red lakes and of course the Salar de Uyuni - probabally the coolest place I´ve ever been.

After the jeep tour we headed to Potosi (the highest city on earth, I believe). Somehow, in Potosi, I was convinced to climb around a mine that was supposed to collapse four years ago. It was terrifying, something I´m glad I did but will never do again. We also got to blow up some dynamite. Anyone can buy the stuff, it´s great.

Yesterday, in Potosi, was the miners Carnival. All the miners came down from the moutains and partied like there is no tomorrow. All the kids arm themselves with water balloons and shaving cream. Being the few gringos attending the party we were absolutly massacred - shaving cream to the face, water balloons, buckets of water - no mercy for the gringos. After a while (and a few beers) we took to arming ourselves. After that, things get a little blury due the the Bolivian moonshine we were drinking. I remember catching someone with their hand in my pocket trying to steal my camera and then, of course, someone stole my camera outright a few minutes later by slashing open my zipped pocket in a massive crowd. Just my luck. I lose all my pictures halfway through my trip, again. We were obvious targets though, we were essentially the only white kids there and really stood out. Most people were fantastic, though; they were showing us around and were very proud that white people would come so far to see their little carnival (even if it was a coincidence). Bolivians, in general are extremely hospitiable and nice. We´ve had many people go out of their way to help us. Except this kid next to me, he´s a little bastard.

Anyway, in Sucre now, going to La Paz soon. I´ll try and keep up the blogging (and will try and get some pics of Uyuni up cause its absolutly amazing).

And I can´t believe I´m rooting for the Packers to beat New York!

Happy New Year!

A bit late I know, but to say I've been lazy the last week would be an understatement. All the hiking and go-go-go in Tierra Del Fuego and Patagonia wore me out and I feel I've earned the right to be a bum over the holidays. I'm currently in Mendoza - wine country in Argentina. It's definetly my kind of place; wine is dirt cheap and it is quite nice to be in a proper city again. New Year was a blast. We had a party at the hostel, big grill-out with like 30 steaks, two whole chickens and a bunch of chorrizo for about 15 people. Unfortunatly, later in the night, Alex, the dude I've been traveling with, decided to take a drunken walk around town late at night and was jumped. He lost some money and all of his bank cards. Not cool. We're both heading up to Salta (our last stop in Argentina) tonight and hopefully his new cards will meet us there. I'm not terribly optomistic that they'll arrive soon which leaves me with some tough decisions to make. I'd rather not head into Bolivia alone but I certainly can't affort to stay in Salta for an extented period of time -- I've got too much ground to cover in the next 3 months.

Anyway, this is likely to be my last Argentinian post (unless I get stuck in Salta). It's a great country and seems to be on the upswing. Since the Peso fell tourism has expanded drastically, new hostels are opening every day and small towns are now seeing the money in the form of gringos with packs wandering down their once deserted streets. It's still somewhat cheap to travel the country but I feel this will soon change. As of now you can get a hostel bed for around $10-13, a liter beer at a bodega for $1 or less, a nice meal at a restaurant for $5 and ride the subway in BA for about 27 cents. Apparently, last summer it was even cheaper -- prices will continue going up as more and more find out about this great place. Seriously, if I hadn't moved all my stuff to NYC this entry would likely read: screw you guys I'm moving to Buenos Aires. Seriously....